Virology News

There is a substantial body of evidence showing that HIV causes AIDS—and that antiretroviral treatment (ART) has turned the viral infection from a death sentence into a chronic disease.1 Yet a small group of AIDS denialists keeps alive the conspiratorial argument that ART is harmful and that HIV science has been corrupted by commercial interests.

Cape Town's own Nicoli Nattrass!

Meta-analyses of the few studies providing effects with adjustment for confounders suggest that in high-risk populations, oral oseltamivir may reduce mortality (odds ratio, 0.23 [95% CI, 0.13 to 0.43]; low-quality evidence), hospitalization (odds ratio, 0.75 [CI, 0.66 to 0.89]; low-quality evidence), and duration of symptoms (33 hours [CI, 21 to 45 hours]; very low–quality evidence) compared with no treatment. Earlier treatment with oseltamivir was generally associated with better outcomes. Inhaled zanamivir may lead to shorter symptom duration (23 hours [CI, 17 to 28 hours]; moderate-quality evidence) and fewer hospitalizations (odds ratio, 0.66 [CI, 0.37 to 1.18]) but more complications than no treatment. Direct comparison of oral oseltamivir and inhaled zanamivir suggests no important differences in key outcomes. Data from 1 study suggests that oral amantadine may reduce mortality and pneumonia associated with influenza A. No included study evaluated rimantadine.

Image courtesy of Russell Kightley Media

Tinderbox: How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic and How the World Can Finally Overcome It, attempts to pinpoint the birth and early life of HIV and AIDS.

Considering a wealth of evidence, the authors suggest that the European Scramble for Africa during the late 19th and early 20th century helped turn localised outbreaks of the infection into a global epidemic.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2107605/HIV-epidemic-driven-colonialism-Africa-century-ago.html#ixzz1nhlAqwEM

I suppose if you build roads and cities, people will use the roads to get to the cities - and bring whatever they have with them.  Including viruses.

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Google Flu Trends has become a public health tool.

Four years ago, Google launched Google Flu Trends, which estimates the prevalence of flu outbreaks based on how many people are searching for things like “fever” or “flu medication.” The search metrics have tracked incredibly closely with Center for Disease Control data....

Google: slowly assimilating everything you do.

The engineered bird flu virus may not be as lethal as originally reported, a conference is told.

Ron A.M. Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam... said the team infected six ferrets with wild virus and six with engineered virus by spraying the bug directly down their throats into their windpipes. All of the animals in both groups died. The team then sprayed an unusually high dose of each virus into the nasal passages of ferrets. Two animals that got the wild virus by this route died, but the engineered virus was fatal to only one in eight animals. The team then put ferrets infected with the engineered virus next to caged, uninfected animals. Seven animals became infected, but none died....

And round and round we go, again.  I thank Russell Kightley Media for the image.

Although in its sixth year of publication, this year's barometer is the first to include data on early infant HIV testing for babies born to HIV-positive mothers and shows that about half of all babies born to HIV-positive mothers are now being tested for the virus at six weeks of age, an important step to ensuring they access the early HIV treatment recommended for all children younger than one under national guidelines. In 2009, only about a quarter of such babies were being tested using the sensitive polymerase chain reaction - tests that confirm whether HIV-exposed infants are HIV-positive.

The report also found that almost all pregnant women are now tested for HIV, which has helped lower mother-to-child HIV transmission to below 4 percent in the country.

Scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have discovered evidence of a new influenza type A virus in Guatemalan fruit bats.

"...for reassortment to occur, the bat flu virus would have to be capable of infecting a different animal, such as a pig, horse or dog, at the same time as a human flu virus.

So far, the bat flu virus has only been found in little yellow-shouldered bats. These fruit bats are not native to the US, but quite common in Central and South America. The bats don't bite people, but it is feasible they could shed the virus onto foods like fruit and vegetables that are then eaten by humans and other animals."

And if you watched "Contagion", you will remember the bulldozer knocking down the tree, which disturbed the bat, which roosted in a pigpen, where pigs ate the faeces, and - recombination occurred!